NEW DELHI: There are very few sports teams that look as out of place in home conditions as Delhi Capitals do at the Ferozeshah Kotla. For the second match in a row here, the Capitals brought their unsure and inept batting forward to post 155/7 for Chennai Super Kings to chase it down with eight wickets and 15 balls to spare on Tuesday evening. Not for nothing that the local crowd invariably supports the visiting teams. The stadium turned yellow in favour of CSK despite MS Dhoni not even travelling for the game. The deafening roar after each wicket must have been intimidating for Delhi Capitals. That doesn’t help when you are playing for your survival in the tournament. At the end of the day, CSK’s bowling and Sanju Samson’s assured innings of unbeaten 87 off 52 offered a lesson in playing on a comparatively sluggish surface. This is why CSK are still breathing in this tournament while Capitals are now pushed to the brink. CSK applied the choke with left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein opening the bowliung and returning figures of 1/19 from his four overs. Samson, batting with utmost composure and clarity, anchored and paced the chase to a nicety. That again is reflection of his growing stature as a senior batter which helped the rookie Kartik Sharma to pace his innings with little pressure and score 41 not out off 31 balls. The unbeaten 114-run partnership is sharp commentary on Capital’s lead batters KL Rahul and Axar Patel’s inability to step up in conditions that challenge your tenacity tad more. Kuldeep Yadav’s sub-standard bowling, leaking 34 from his three overs, on a helpful pitch made another dent on his reputation Rahul, as has been the case with him on slightly tricky surfaces, played out a sedate Powerplay which yielded 37/1 for Capitals. The slog off Hosein was almost a sign of resignation on Rahul’s part as he departed for 12 off 13 in the sixth over of the match. Captain Axar Patel’s struggles look unending. Tuesday’s proceedings may have been a welcome break from the heady run-scoring trend in the IPL. But it also demonstrated the modern batter’s inability to find a middle ground when the conditions give the bowlers something to work with. Twice in as many matches here, Capitals were forced to use up their Impact Player in the first innings of the match. If it was Abhishek Porel coming out to bat at No. 7 in the Powerplay against Royal Challengers Bengaluru last week, it was Sameer Rizvi’s turn to bring about some respectability at 69/5. But that also meant Capitals couldn’t use their third spinner on a comparatively sluggish track to defend the score in the second half of the match. It is now established that Rizvi is most comfortable playing sedate knocks in situations that don’t demand a high rate of scoring. And he stuck to his game plan—an ultra-cautious start to his innings and then a flourish at the back end to finish with an unbeaten 40 off 24 balls.
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